Until recently, the only vehicles suitable for travel off the road over snow covered terrain were traditional snowmobiles of the type having an endless drive track at the rear and one or more steering skis in the front or a so-called "snow cat" which utilizes a plurality of endless tracks without skis. Neither of these types of vehicles, however, is capable of adequate performance over clean, snow-free hard surfaces.
More recently, three-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicles, equipped with wide low-pressure tires having an air pressure of about 0.1 to 0.3 kg/cm.sup.2 have been used as both road vehicles and off-the-road vehicles. Although such vehicles are able to run off the road on snow surfaces, the wheels tend to pack and accumulate snow. As a result, the wheels receive high running resistances as they shear the accumulated snow, thus degrading the running performance during off the road runs over snow covered terrain.
The present invention relates to a vehicle which is ideally suited for running both on hard surfaces and on off-the-road snow surfaces. More particularly, the invention is directed to a vehicle which is equipped with wide, low-pressure rear tires and either ski or similar tires on the front yielding improved running performance on soft snow surfaces as well as on hard surfaces.